


Lily, Sagiso, and Iris

by seraphic_gate



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Sorey and Mikleo are totally in love but they also like alisha, cute nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7992688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphic_gate/pseuds/seraphic_gate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Alisha spends more time with the party.  Alisha and Mikleo are separated from the group and must rely on each other to survive, while Sorey desperately searches for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lily, Sagiso, and Iris

Seraphim didn't lose consciousness in the traditional sense. They were pretty much human-shaped bundles of spiritual energy made corporeal by willpower alone. Besides, he'd fallen longer distances faster and harder with Sorey than this without blacking out. This time though, he found himself opening his eyes to darkness with his back against cold stone and a warm body crumpled over his chest.

“Alisha,” he said, identifying her by the feel of the armor on her arms pressing into him. She stirred, not unconscious. He'd taken most of the fall with his artes and the rest with his body. So that's why he'd blacked out for a second. At least it hadn't been Sorey, he thought. He'd have crushed him.

She sat up, taking the weight off his body, and looked around herself wildly. A weak glimmer of sunlight filtered in through the chasm they'd fallen into enough to see by once his eyes adjusted to it, but she didn't appear to notice him. Mikleo groaned. Sorey was so far away that he couldn't share his resonance with her, and she'd lost her ability to see him.

“Alisha, can you hear me?”

Alisha didn't react as if she could. She stood and grabbed her spear. “Sorey!” she cried up through the stone chasm above them, voice echoing on the rocks. “Lady Lailah? Lord Mikleo? Do any of you hear me?”

Mikleo sighed. It was like Elysia all over again. Alisha couldn't see or hear him.

The water where he'd used his artes to soften their fall had left mud on the floor. He dipped his fingers it it and began to write on the wall in what little light there was. At first, Alisha jumped at the sourceless movement. Then she seemed to grasp what was going on and relaxed.

“Here,” he wrote on the stone. “Mikleo.”

“Lord Mikleo,” Alisha said, bowing her head. She still revered the seraphim, and while that was refreshing to see in a human, Mikleo found it a bit awkward. The way she said his name like that made him blush, and he was glad she couldn't see him. “I'm glad you're here with me.”

His own connection to Sorey was still active. He could leave and return to him in a flicker of light at any point. But then Alisha would be alone and stranded, and without any ability to defeat hellions on her own. He had to stay with her until the others could find them.

The mud was proving a difficult method of communication, however. He couldn't find enough to write what he needed to tell her. Alisha's resonance was getting better though, so maybe he could get through to her.

He took her hand. Alisha yelped and then let out a sigh, realizing that it must be him. She smiled, but not quite in the right direction. At least she could feel his touch. “Alisha, can you hear me now?” he said, concentrating on her as hard as he could.

Alisha's eyebrows wrinkled and furrowed. Her bottom lip stuck out and she squeezed his hand hard. “I can almost hear you,” she said. “But it's barely there, it sounds like it's too far away to make out.”

Mikleo held both of her hands and held them against his chest. “How about now?”

“Ah, it's getting better!” She tightened her grasp around whatever she could feel, cinching the fabric of his vest between her fingers. “Please keep trying, Lord Mikleo.”

Mikleo groaned. This would be hard to explain to the others, he thought. But none of them were here and that was sort of the problem. So he did it anyway. He put his arm around Alisha's waist and pulled her in against him, until her face was pressed against his neck. “How about now?”

“Ah!” Alisha stammered and blushed. “Yes, I can hear you perfectly now!”

“Sorry about this,” he said. “I know it's embarrassing.”

“N-no!” she choked out. “If anything, I should feel honored.”

Mikleo sighed. At least she wasn't upset about it, even if her reverent worship of the seraphim struck him as a little odd. “Sorey's so far away I can barely feel him, and you've lost your squire's gifts.”

“Oh,” she whimpered, and sunk into him further. “I had hoped I'd improved at least enough to hear you on my own by now.”

He could smell sweat on her like he always smelled on Sorey, but other honey-sweet things, too, like the perfume that Natalie had as a gift from Mason. He and Sorey sprayed it on themselves once when they were children, and made her quite upset. “Don't worry about that,” he said. “Are you injured? It was a long fall.”

“I'm fine. I'm not hurt. You must have broken the fall with your artes.”

“Even so, pace yourself,” he said. Although truthfully, Alisha with her knight's training might be even more suited to this sort of thing than Sorey. “We have to look for a way out. I can't keep holding you like this while we walk, but just say my name out loud and I'll show you that I'm still beside you with my artes.”

“Okay,” Alisha said with a nod. She pulled away from him and smiled. “Mikleo?”

Mikleo used one of the first artes he'd ever learned, a simple bubble spell. Sorey used to love it when he'd make bubbles when they were children, and the adult Alisha was almost equally enthralled.

“Wow, it's pretty!” she laughed, watching her reflection in the translucent rainbow surface of the largest bubble as it reflected the weak light. Then she cleared her throat and tried to look serious. “If you need to tell me something, then you'll just have to grab me,” she said. “We can't afford to be shy if it’s our safety at stake.”

Mikleo didn't answer since he knew Alisha would be unable to hear him. He was certain that compared to the political atmosphere of Ladylake, being lost in the depths of a cave was easy-peasy. Her cool-headedness was admirable and something he wished Sorey would learn from.

That's what he was thinking as she took a battle stance and began to fight. The hellions were small, snake-like creatures that posed little threat to them after all they'd faced so far. Still, without the power of purification granted by Sorey's pact with Lailah, Alisha would be quickly overrun without his help.

He readied his artes to strike the finishing blow while Alisha kept them distracted with her spear.

\- - -

The cave was winding and Alisha could barely see. In some spots she couldn't at all, and had to run her hand along the side of the cavern wall to keep from getting even more lost. She at least knew generally the direction she and Mikleo had come from and could keep from backtracking by accident, but there was no guarantee that these channels would ever reach the surface.

She didn't need Mikleo's bubble trick really, as much as she like the pretty spheres of water magic sparkling in the filtered light. She could sense that Mikleo was there, and not just in a vague nearby-seraphim sort of way. She would have known it was him, and not Edna or Lailah. She could feel his dual nature, the fluidity of water. But he felt different from Lord Uno, too. She sensed his youthful exuberance, his humor, frustration, and yearning—the barest edge of all the things that made him uniquely Mikleo. She wondered what it would be like to armatize with the seraphim like Sorey could, and take all of it into herself.

Maybe her resonance was getting better in that way. Nevertheless, she still signaled to Mikleo to produce the bubbles for her. It was the closest to talking that they could get, alone in the deep, dark cave.

They came to a tunnel that seemed to open into a larger cavern. Blocking their path into it was a solid stone as big as an elephant. Alisha tried to squeeze behind it but couldn't fit more than her arm. “It's no use,” she said. “We'll have to find another way.”

She sighed and looked down the path they'd come from. There had been a fork about a mile back, and they could try the other path. But before she started on that course, she heard trickling water and turned back to see by the dim light, growing dimmer as the sun set somewhere high above them, water moving of its own, wrapping around the stone.

“Ah, Lord Mikleo!” She clasped her hands together over her chest and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the rock wouldn't yield to the water. She watched for some time as the trickles of water around the stone like fingers looking for any crack or pore to break it open from, to no avail. Mikleo's frustration was palpable in the air, then a loud _thunk_ as he started to hit it physically. Alisha hoped he was using his staff and not trying to punch or kick it out of anger, but she couldn't tell.

Then it was silent again.

“Mikleo,” she said. She wasn't greeted by the usual bubbles. “Mikleo, I know you're still here.”

Mikleo still didn't answer. The stagnant air was heavy with his shame.

“Mikleo, I need to talk to you!” When Mikleo didn't respond this time, she grasped wildly at the air attempting to grab him. She was sure this looked entirely silly, but wasn't unsuccessful as she managed to grab hold of some invisible fabric, probably one of Mikleo's twin cape tails.

“Now I've got you,” she said and pulled on the cape like a mime on an invisible rope. Mikleo gave some resistance, but inevitably allowed himself to be caught and pulled up into a big hug. Alisha wrapped her arms around him from what felt like behind and squeezed hard. “It's not your fault!”

Mikleo's voice sounded in her ears as clearly as if he was just another human being standing next to her. “There isn't a single crack on that whole stupid rock, I just—”

“You tried your best.” She could feel Mikleo tense in her arms.

“Sorry I'm not very useful in this situation. If I was an earth seraph, I could bust it in no time. If I was a wind seraph I could sense a way out of here. And if I was a fire seraph I could at least keep you warm.”

“I'm fine, I'm not cold.”

Mikleo scoffed. “I can see you shivering.” She could feel him tossing his head up. “You should really wear full pants when you're exploring, you know.”

If that criticism of her wardrobe choice was an attempt to push her away, it didn't work. Alisha just smiled and hugged him even more tightly. “You can make water for me,” she said. “And you're the best at snacks.”

“You wouldn't prefer Sorey? At least Sorey would be able to keep you entertained with ancient legends and dreamy stories.”

“But if he cooked for me, I might get sick.”

Mikleo sighed. “That's true...”

“Come on. Let's go back to the last wide spot and lie down for the night. I'm sure the others will find us.”

“Okay.”

“This time, don't let go of my hand.” Alisha felt for his left hand and grasped it. “I can at least hear you a little if we hold hands.” She could make out if his tone was warning or pained this way, even if she couldn't make out his words. Right then, he was groaning and his tone was dripping with embarrassment.

\- - -

Mikleo couldn't make Alisha a fire or anything to see by. His artes gave off some light, but it wasn't consistent enough to explore by and maintaining even a simple spell for hours at a time was draining on him. There wasn't much to look at anyway, with himself being invisible to her. So he agreed to rest for the night in the chamber of rock where three paths connected, and they'd follow the third yet untraveled one in the morning.

Alisha wanted to be able to talk to him, so he sat with his back against the cave wall and allowed her to lean against him. This seemed to be enough physical contact to communicate without embracing in that way that was a little too intimate for Mikleo's comfort. He often sat with Sorey the same way, although Sorey would be the one he leaned against.

He could tell that she was cold and that his seraph's body didn't do much to warm her. Neither did the soft serve, ice pops, and other food he was able to make with his magic. But at least she wasn't hungry.

“I'm still very disappointed that I can't make frozen treats without seraphic artes,” she said. “They're my favorite.”

“Sorey's, too,” he answered. “He likes vanilla soft serve the best.”

“I think I like your strawberry better,” she said, yawning. She leaned her head back against him and frowned. “If I was a better Squire, I wouldn't need to make you so uncomfortable just to talk.”

“I'm not,” Mikleo spat out, feeling his face get hotter. “I mean, it was weird at first but now I'm sort of used to it.” The truth was, Alisha was quite nice to hold against him. She might be cold, but her body gave off the same wonderful heat as Sorey's did. She smelled a lot nicer, though. With the top of her head pressed up against his nose he couldn't not catch the scent of her whenever he breathed in.

“I'm glad you're not suffering,” Alisha said. “Still, I hope my resonance improves enough to make this sort of award situation unnecessary.”

“Is it improving at all?” Mikleo asked. “I mean, you've been with us consistently for over a month now. I don't know how long it takes, but Lailah said you were already gifted.”

“I've noticed that I can sense you nearby, the three of you, and I can tell you apart by how you feel to me.”

“How we feel?”

Alisha nodded. Her hair tickled his nose. “You have a soothing aura about you, Lord Mikleo. It's like how rain sounds.”

Mikleo stiffened up and blushed even harder. “M-Maybe you just imagined that part.”

“And Lady Lailah is warm like how a fire smells. I don't know Lady Edna as well yet, but she always feels...”

“How does Edna feel?” Mikleo asked with a bitter laugh.

“She feels to me like the shadow of a mountain,” Alisha said. “That dark, cool place where travelers can rest without baking in the sun. That kind of gentle darkness, I guess.”

“Or, where a rock slide might fall on them if they don't look out.”

Alisha giggled. It was nice to be able to keep her spirits up, at the least.

Mikleo thought about that. Was he like rain? It rained sometimes in Elysia, and those were wonderful times. Holed up in Sorey's little hut with the rain thumping down on the roof, feeling like nobody else could ever find them. Kind of like now, only it wasn't just a feeling. His friends couldn't find them, and it wasn't a comfort.

\- - -

Sorey became conscious of the the fact he was wringing his hands and made himself stop. It was bad enough that both Mikleo and Alisha had been missing all afternoon without making the others worried about his mental state, too.

“Mikleo's connection to his vessel, by which I mean you, Sorey, hasn't been severed,” Lailah explained gently, putting a hand on Sorey's shoulder. “So if he hasn't come back here, then it means he's taking care of Alisha.”

Edna was obviously thinking that it could also mean something bad happened to them, but she wasn't as keen on torturing him as she was with Mikleo. She just kept that same blank expression on her face, occasionally turning the umbrella on her shoulder. “I could take us down there with earth artes,” she said. “But there's no telling whether or not I might shake something loose and accidentally splat those two in the process.”

“Yeah,” Sorey mumbled, tapping his fingers against his chin in thought. “Since we haven't found anything in this area, it's better if we go back outside and attack it from the surface.” That would take time, though. It had been twelve hours already. Mikleo left his side all the time to do things on his own, especially when it came to exploring or training. They couldn't compete with each other if they were always side by side, after all. The times they spent apart made it even more fun to be together again. Being without him wasn't unusual by itself.

It was the sensation of being Mikleo's vessel, of having this spiritual tether to him, that made the distance unbearable. While each seraph opened themselves to him to some extent in order to form their pact, Mikleo had given even more. The doors of his soul were wide open in him, nothing guarded. Sorey could finally feel the depth of Mikleo's devotion to him, and Mikleo could feel the fondness in Sorey's heart. They'd always known without having to say so, but now they could _feel_ it and they weren't quite used to that yet.

That's why the Mikleo-shaped space on Sorey's left side felt so intensely empty right then.

“Well,” Edna said, deadpan. “Let's go, then. A princess needs rescuing.”

Sorey laughed. “I'm not worried about Alisha, she'll be fine!”

“I mean Princess Meebo,” Edna snarked back. “Fair princess Meebo, a waterboy surrounded by all that mean rock...”

Sorey continued with another chuckle. If Edna was making Meebo jokes when he wasn't even around to get annoyed by them, she must really miss him, too. “We'll find them!”

\- - -

Mikleo felt Alisha stir against him.

“How long did I sleep?” she asked, noticing the lack of sunlight.

“Only a few hours if I had to guess,” he answered. He had never been that good at sensing the passage of time. Most seraphim weren't.

“Oh well,” she sighed. “I can't sleep well at all.”

Mikleo hadn't slept any, either. He didn't need to, but it still helped to pass the time. “We won't be able to search until we get a little sun coming through.”

“Will you tell me something, Mikleo?”

Mikleo noticed that Alisha had started dropping the honorifics more often than not, and that made him smile. “Yeah?”

“What did you and the other seraphim in Elysia think when I was there? I didn't do anything strange without thinking about it, did I?”

Mikleo laughed to himself. “Not at all,” he answered. “We didn't exactly trust you, but you didn't do anything to offend us. Everyone there thought that you were very beautiful and joked that you were going to steal Sorey's heart.”

Alisha blushed at the first part, but then pulled away from him slightly and turned her head down in the pitch-black darkness. “Is Sorey's future something that you and your family concern yourself with often?”

“Ah,” Mikleo wondered if Alisha could tell he was scratching his ear nervously in the dark. “Not me! Everyone else. The older seraphim, you know? He's like their special baby boy. Of course they want him to find a pretty wife and do human-ish stuff. But Sorey's not really interested in that.”

Alisha hugged her legs. “He's very different, isn't he?”

“Yeah.” Mikleo suddenly felt the intense loneliness in his heart where that small, invisible tether held them together. He put his hands gently on Alisha's shoulders and pulled her back. “I'm losing you,” he said. “Stay where you can hear me, okay?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She leaned back against him again.

“Um,” Mikleo mumbled, trying to think of more topics of conversation. “So you couldn't see me or Lailah for a long time. What did you think about us once you finally could?”

“I thought, Sorey didn't exaggerate at all! Even though he was so energetic when he told me about how beautiful you both were that I almost couldn't believe it. But you're every bit as lovely as he said.”

Mikleo grumbled. “Sorey...”

That made Alisha laugh even more, so he didn't mind being embarrassed.

\- - -

Sorey could feel the general direction Mikleo was in thanks to their connection to each other. In that way, it was sort of useful and not just agonizing after all. They had located a winding channel down and Edna moved rocks out of their path as gently as possible so as not to cause a cave-in, but it was slow going. Sorey's palms itched as he bounced up and down on his heels trying hard not to think about anything bad that might have happened.

There were a few little snake hellions in the cave, but nothing that could have posed a threat to Mikleo as long as he still carried the power of purification. And he could assume that Mikleo was with Alisha, so they'd both be okay. That was a relief.

“If they fell down here,” Lailah said as they walked through the tight and twisting channels, “Mikleo couldn't have broken the rocks by himself to get out. Oh, poor thing!” She clapped her palms to her cheeks and shook her head back and forth, fretting so much that she was having trouble getting through the narrow places.

Edna was looking a bit smug with herself in contrast. She twirled her umbrella over her shoulder.

\- - -

Alisha woke to find herself curled up in Mikleo's lap, which wasn't such a bad place to be. Mikleo was not very warm in nature, but in contrast to the cold stone floor of the cave, he felt nice. She had gotten so little sleep and this felt so peaceful, a part of her wanted to stay like that for a little while. But she knew that they had to get moving now that there was light again, and lifted up.

Mikleo was sleeping too. He really was pretty with his silver hair and skin even more fair than her own. She wondered if all seraphim were equally lovely as he and Lady Lailah were. Then she realized, she could see Mikleo. Without Sorey's help. She was seeing him right then, even without the squire's pact being active.

Mikleo stirred awake. “Huh?” He rubbed his eyes. Alisha laughed softly at how sleepy he seemed, like a kitten, rubbing his paw over his face. For a blessed and noble seraphim to make such a cute gesture was so endearing. He frowned at her and folded his arms. “Well, are you ready to go?”

“Yes!” she said, and nodded energetically. “Lord Mikleo, you're looking quite well this morning!”

“Looking?” Mikleo met her eyes again with a mixture of surprise and excitement. “You can see me?”

“Yes!” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him one more time, even though it didn't seem necessary anymore. “It must be from spending so much time so close to you,” she said. “Thank you, Mikleo!”

Mikleo blushed a deep red and began to stammer. “I-I didn't do anything.”

\- - -

They decided to give that one unexplored path a try. There weren't any hellion encounters that morning. Mikleo figured that maybe they could sense the power now growing in Alisha, and were repelled by it. Which was fine with him. Sorey could do all the annoying purification work once they'd met up again.

He had been trying not to think about how much he missed Sorey, but the thought of seeing him again made him want to hurry. He had Alisha to worry about, though.

Just as he was thinking he'd feel horrible if anything were to happen to her, she slipped and fell to her knees with a shout. “Alisha!” He ran to her and helped her into a sitting position.

“It's fine,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “It's just a scrape.”

It was a bad scrape. Alisha had skinned her knee and it bled openly. “Just stay still, I can heal it up.”

Alisha sighed and conceded. Mikleo held his hands over the wound and applied his healing artes to it. A simple flesh wound wouldn't take long at all, but it gave him enough time to notice that her legs were shaking. “Cold?”

“It's not so bad when we're moving,” she said in return.

The wound was healed and he stood. Since the cold wasn't too hard on him due to his nature, he took off his jacket. Underneath, he still had on a black shirt. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “I don't need this for now.”

Alisha stood and took the coat gingerly. Because it wouldn't fit over her armor, she draped it over herself like a cape. “Thank you.”

“Don't mention it.”

\- - -

Alisha was happy to wear the jacket Mikleo gave her because it was full of that wonderful rain smell that was uniquely his. The jacket itself was quite warm too, perhaps because the mana still within it.

\- - -

Sorey felt Mikleo inching closer, closer, and closer. He wanted to break into a run and plow into him as soon as he saw him. But the path was too narrow and he had to walk very carefully.

“Mikleo!” he shouted down the path. “Alisha!”

“Can you feel them close?” Edna asked. “I mean, I hope you can, otherwise all that shouting seems pretty stupid.”

“I can feel them too,” Lailah answered. “They must be working towards us. Keep breaking these rocks Edna, and I'm sure we'll meet each other soon.”

\- - -

“Did you hear that?” Mikleo asked. “It's Sorey!”

“I did!” Alisha returned his excited grin with a starry-eyed look of her own. “Sorey!” she called out, cupping a hand to her mouth. “Do you hear us, Sorey?”

A crash of crumbling rock answered them in the distance.

“Stay where you are!” Sorey called back. “We're breaking through, we're coming to get you!”

“Okay!”

Alisha was still smiling, but she placed her hands behind her back and looked timid. “Mikleo, um,” she began. She averted her eyes into another direction, but her shy demeanor only made him want her look right at him. “They seem to have found us, so if you'd like to return to Sorey now, it would be perfectly fine.”

“Oh.” Mikleo thought about that. He wanted nothing more than to fly back to Sorey and be warm and right in his place in side him. But then there'd be no Alisha at his side. “They're almost here,” he said. “Sorey can wait for me another few minutes.”

Those minutes weren't silent though, as Sorey's voice came ringing through the tunnels asking a million questions, interrupted here and there by the sound of Edna breaking rock. “Are you guys okay? Are you hungry? Is Alisha all right? Is she cold? I sure am! Lailah, can you make the place warmer? Did you guys see anything cool? Were there any ruins down there?”

“Always ruins,” Mikleo sighed.

“No ruins,” Alisha said, “but we saw a very interesting fossil in one of the cave walls!”

“Ah, no fair!” Sorey's voice echoed back. “Mikleo and Alisha went exploring together without me?”

“Somebody sounds jealous,” Edna teased. “Okay, looks like there's only one more rock.”

“I'm super jealous!” They could hear the sound of Sorey's boots on the stone as he jumped in place.

The last barrier was broken and Sorey came flying at Mikleo with the tails of his white cloak flapping behind him, crashing into him and sending him back several steps. Mikleo shouted and grunted as the crushing wall of Sorey impacted him. “Sorey, calm down!”

“I missed you both!” Sorey said, squeezing Mikleo. He let him go and turned his attention to Alisha. “You too, Alisha!”

Alisha pulled back a step, as if afraid Sorey might try to attack/hug her just as hard. “I'm glad we're all together again.”

“Alisha,” Lailah said, as she and Edna caught up with them. She lit the corridor easily with a few glowing dots of fire artes hanging in the air. “You fell so far away from Sorey that the pact released, but you can clearly see us?”

“Yes!” Alisha nodded. “Since Mikleo and I spent the night together in that cave, my resonance seems to have improved dramatically.”

Mikleo cleared his throat. “I think it also helped that Sorey was getting closer to us all the while.”

Edna seemed to take notice of Alisha wearing Mikleo's cloak. “Sure. Right.”

Mikleo glared at her.

Alisha returned the coat to Mikleo. “You can have this back now Mikleo, since Lailah is here now and able to keep us all warm. Thank you very much for letting me borrow it.”

“No problem,” Mikleo said. He put the coat back on and looked back to Sorey. “Well, Shepherd? What should we do. We thought this path would be a shortcut, but it ended up costing us over a day in wasted time.”

“I vote we go back to town,” Sorey said. “We need to restock on supplies, and I bet you two are exhausted.”

Alisha nodded. “I hate to postpone our journey another day, but it's dangerous to go on unprepared.”

So they headed back towards town, with Mikleo returning to his place inside Sorey’s spirit. He could feel Sorey’s warmth and his relief wash over him even stronger than his embrace, and he could rest.


End file.
